The 6 Most Embarrassing War Stories of All Time

#3. Two Generals Mistake the Same Enemy Soldiers for Their Own Men

The Washington Post / Getty

The Battle of Stoney Creek was a key conflict in the War of 1812, during which two separate American generals confused British soldiers for their own troops and tried to rally them into action, hilariously resulting in both of them being captured.

To be fair, the whole situation was awfully confusing. The battle was the result of a moonlight sneak-attack by British forces on a sleeping American camp. However, the Brits were being supported by auxiliary flanks of Native American soldiers, who let out a war-whoop that alerted the Americans in enough time to form a ragged line of defense. We have to believe this was done on purpose.

MPI / Getty
"Iron Bear will wake up the Americans, and then we ride out and let all the white people kill each other."

The battle was a chaotic nightmare. As the melee became even more jumbled, American General John Chandler rode his horse out into the middle of the bedlam to try and get some idea of what in the mighty fuck was going on. Predictably, his horse was blasted out from under him, and he fell to the ground unconscious.

Chandler awoke moments later to the sounds of commotion coming from the artillery emplacement at the center of the camp. Knowing that artillery was key to winning the fight, Chandler rushed over to try and rally his men to stand strong at their post. He did this despite the fact that he didn't recognize any of the men and that they were all speaking with British accents.

"Hey, would one of you guys pronounce the word 'bathroom'? I'm just curious about something."

As you may have guessed, the commotion Chandler had heard was the sound of his artillery section being overtaken by the enemy, and he had just run headlong into a swarm of British soldiers, who immediately took him captive.

With Chandler out of the picture, it fell to his second-in-command, William Winder, to rally the American defense. Unfortunately, Winder had also heard the noise coming from the artillery section, and he heroically strode into the emplacement to be captured in the exact same fashion as Chandler had been a few minutes earlier.

"Any bad idea is worth doing twice."

Soon after this, the Americans rallied to try to retake the camp, and, as you can guess, they accidentally attacked their fellow Americans instead. Realizing they could not defeat this "British" army, they finally retreated. After just 45 minutes of fighting, the actual (and rather small) British soldiers realized they had won one of the most slapdick military engagements in history.

#2. A Pilot Ejects Just in Time to Watch His Plane Land Itself

Pool / Getty Images

It's hard to imagine anything worse than being in a fighter jet that has decided to go spinning out of control. Managing to eject to safety would seemingly guarantee you a badass story to tell at parties for the rest of your life, unless it turned out that A) the plane was actually fine and B) it managed to land itself perfectly without you, as if you were, in fact, the problem all along. This happened to Captain Gary Foust.

During a test run back in 1970, Foust was flying his F-106 interceptor jet when the plane entered a seemingly unrecoverable spin. Upon realizing that the ground was spinning around like his plane had been tossed into God's blender, Foust did the only sensible thing someone would do in that situation -- he got the hell out of his jet.

"Peace, bro. Lemme know what happens."

After ejecting, he watched from his parachute, expecting to see the jet slam into the ground and go up like a meth lab. That is, until one of his wingmen yelled over the radio, "Gary, you better get back in it!" -- which, in Gary's defense, was a ridiculous thing to suggest. All he could do was stare in amazement as his jet, having successfully trolled the shit out of him, promptly recovered from the spin and flew off without a pilot.

Joe Klamar / Getty"... wow, I feel like an asshole."

Foust's temperamental F-106 proceeded to fly itself in a straight line until it landed almost perfectly in a snowy cornfield below. When police on the ground finally caught up with it, they found the jet's engine still running.

Airforce Magazine via www.f106deltaart.com"I wish I had eyes so I could see the look on that sonofabitch's face."

The Air Force, evidently fearful of whatever demon had taken control of the plane, instructed the police to just sit and wait until it ran out of fuel rather than climb in and attempt to shut it off. When it finally did sputter to a stop, the Air Force repaired the damage and put it right back into service, because, in all fairness, the jet was a damn fine pilot.

Japan really concentrated on outfitting the Musashi with every gun that had ever existed. Its main cannons fired shells that were 18 inches across over a distance of 26 miles, which is almost enough to kill dinosaurs while orbiting the Earth. Unfortunately, there is a problem with launching a ship designed to scuttle moons, and the problem went undetected by the Japanese Navy -- because, apparently, none of them had ever put a fat child in a bathtub.

So, they pushed the lumbering beast into the water, and could only watch helplessly as the huge wave generated by the Musashi went crashing through the harbor and cascading up several rivers, capsizing almost every other ship in its wake and flooding all of the houses along the riverbanks. Despite being dangerous and humiliating, the Musashi's rampaging displacement arguably suggested a new strategy to the commanders of the Imperial Navy.

"We should have saved the ammo and just dropped this thing next to America."

Confused residents who had been confined to their homes to protect the secrecy of the Musashi's launch became far more confused when seawater burst through their doors like the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King. After rushing outside to avoid drowning, the people were shooed back inside their partially-submerged houses by the Japanese military, who either quickly fabricated some excuse, or simply pretended that nothing was out of the ordinary. Hell, it's not as though they would have believed the truth.

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